Obama-Friendly Business Group Gets White House Access

Business Forward, an association formed in 2009 to advance President Barack Obama’s economic agenda, has spent plenty of time with White House officials during the fiscal cliff imbroglio.

Thursday the group is holding the last of seven briefings with top Obama administration officials about budget issues, The Hill reports.

The White House officials include senior adviser Valerie Jarrett; Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers; Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Fred Hochberg, head of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Business Forward’s members include AT&T, Facebook, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Verizon, and Wal-Mart.

“When you’re an ally of the president, you can often bring in as many people into the White House as you want,” Jade West, senior vice president of government relations for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, told The Hill.

“Business Forward is a political organization founded to support the Obama administration. So the fact they can bring people in to see the president and his people is neither a surprise nor terribly impressive.”